The Republican-led home in Missouri on Tuesday abandoned the democratic objection and passed a Trump-backed plan, redrawing the state’s Capitol districts so that Republicans can beat almost all of them.
The unusual medieval rezoning plan heading for the state Senate now aims to strengthen the public outlook for Republicans in next year’s U.S. House elections. After a similar move by Republican-led Texas and a democratically-led counterattack in California, voters still need approval.
Other states, including Republican-led Indiana and Florida, and democrat-led Maryland and New York, were able to trace their own revisions of what has emerged as a battle for national constituency.
To explain population changes, U.S. residential areas were redrawn nationwide after the 2020 census. The current rezoning push is made for partisan advantage, a process known as gerrymandals.
“It’s fraud,” said Rep. Yoronda Fountain Henderson, one of many Democrats who condemned the measure. “When President Trump says it, we’re going to jump.”
Trump wants to maintain the majority of Congress to advance the Congressional agenda. Historically, however, opposing the president’s party won seats in the midterm elections, as Democrats did during Trump’s first term, and then each of them.
Missouri legislators meet in two special sessions called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.
The House on Tuesday also passed measures that would make it difficult to pass a citizen-led initiative amending the state’s constitution by requiring majority votes from each legislative district rather than the statewide majority if approved by voters across the Senate and statewide. This comes after Missouri’s initiative process has been used in recent years and has earned voter approval for amendments on abortion rights, marijuana legalization and Medicaid expansion.
The revised Missouri map could help Republicans win a seat for House seats
Missouri’s rezoning plan would give Republicans an improved opportunity to win seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats.
The plan targets the Kansas City area owned by Democrat US Emmanuel Cleaver by revolving east into heavy rural areas and reducing the number of black and minority voters in the district. Other parts of Kansas City will be added to predominantly rural areas represented by Republicans.
Cleaver, who turned 81 in October, is the Methodist pastor who served as Kansas City’s first black mayor from 1991 to 1999 and won the election to his US home in 2004. He argued that Republicans create an atmosphere of “threatening” and “divorce” and insist on trying new court maps.
“It was, frankly, one of those moments I didn’t expect to go through,” Cleaver said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.
While major Kansas City districts will expand significantly, the state’s legislative districts will be more compact and competitive under the revised map, Republican lawmakers said. Kehoe defended the revised map as a way to amplify conservative voices in Congress.
It sponsors Republican Rep. Dark Deaton, who is “a map of Congress that better represents Missouri in Washington, D.C..”
Some Republicans join Democrats against the new district
Missouri has passed the revised district with 90-65 votes. Thirteen Republicans, including House Speaker John Patterson outside Kansas, joined Democrats in a vote against the revised map. However, only a couple spoke about it during the two-day discussion.
“It’s wrong to use our raw political power to tilt the arena towards our side regardless of party,” said Republican state legislator Bryant Volfin.
Three Democrats sat in the home chamber for several days and nights, protesting that special sessions began in the absence of most members. Former Vice President Kamala Harris ordered pizza and chicken wings to be delivered at a support show.
Republicans are “beating their knees on Donald Trump and pushing these racist gerrymander districts,” said Rep. Ray Reid of St. Louis, who slept in the room.
The Missouri NAACP sued to attempt to invalidate the special session. The national lawsuit has no extraordinary circumstances to justify the session, and argues that the state constitution will prohibit rezoning without new census data or invalidation of current districts.
Missouri Attorney General Katherine Hannaway, who took office Monday, said he doesn’t believe there is a constitutional ban on districts over the course of the period.
Lieb writes for the Associated Press. Associated writer Heather Hollingsworth contributed to this report from Kansas City, Missouri.
